Render to Caesar

Greenwich Point House Hotel top of picture, Gloucester Point Hotel directly across the Delaware River. (1843 map)

Thanks to the newspapers of the day, we know that Samuel Longstreet Forman (1805-1844) was the proprietor of the Greenwich Point House Hotel on the Philadelphia side of the Delaware River from 1836 until early 1839, when he moved across the river to take over the Gloucester Point Hotel on the New Jersey side. In 1838, before he moved, he and his wife, Eliza, received a commendation in the newspaper from one of the gentlemen they had assisted after he had capsized on the river - for "their prompt assistance and kind attention."

I was surprised to come across another incident in which Samuel helped with a capsized boat just a year later (1839.) The Philadelphia Inquirer had an article titled "An Accident and Creditable Conduct."

We learn that on Saturday last [6 Jul], a batteau containing a man, his wife, and three children, was upset in the Delaware, a little below the Point House. One of the children was asleep in the bottom of the boat, and nevertheless floated away unharmed, and together with the others, was saved.

A batteau is a small flat-bottom, shallow, double ended boat. [photo below] The article went on to say that the keeper of the Greenwich Hotel, Mr. Panormo, was "praiseworthy in the very highest degree." The article ended with this:

 We believe also, that the attention of Mr. Forman, on the Jersey side, was of the most commendable kind.

Well, the common phrase "Don't believe everything you read in the papers" held true even then. I found a letter to the editor of the paper just a few days later titled Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. 

Robert S. King wrote to say that he was the man who with his wife and children had capsized in the Delaware. He explained that he was out in a batteau with his father, wife, two children and child's nurse on Saturday afternoon, when a squall came up. He, his wife who was holding their infant in her arms, and their 2 year old son were "immediately precipitated into the water." Fortunately several gentlemen on a schooner came upon them and plucked them from the water, saving them from a "watery grave."

We were conveyed to Gloucester, where, through the kindness of Mr. Forman, the proprietor of the hotel at that place, and his lady, every attention was bestowed on my family that would contribute to their comfort, as far as circumstances would admit of, until we could return home.

So it wasn't the Greenwich Point Hotel but the Gloucester Point Hotel.  He goes on to say they took a ferry back to the Pennsylvania side where they hired a horse and vehicle from Mr. Panormo (Greenwich Point Hotel)  to convey them back to the city. He closes his letter with this:

To Mr. Forman and his amiable family, I return my most grateful acknowledgments. 

 So now we have the whole story. Thank goodness for the stories these old newspapers share with us!

Colonial Batteau replicas, photo by Chris Andrie.